The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad

A gripping true story of how dedicated scientists defied impossible odds to preserve one of the world's most crucial seed banks while their city faced annihilation during the Second World War. A meticulously researched history that reads with the urgency and tension of a page-turning thriller.

This book is the subject of an upcoming Ashmolean Museum Book Talk with Simon Parkin, author and journalist, to find out more about this event, please click here.

The Institute of Plant Industry in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), established by Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov in 1921, created the world's first major seed bank to combat the threat of global famine. During the 900 day Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) scientists famously protected this invaluable, diverse collection from destruction and starvation, with some dying of hunger rather than eating the seed samples. This book by Simon Parkin tells their story.

In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad – now St Petersburg – and began the longest blockade in recorded history. By the most conservative estimates, the siege would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. Most died of starvation.

At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed – the world’s first seed bank. After attempts to evacuate the collection failed, and as supplies dwindled, the scientists responsible faced a terrible decision: should they distribute the specimens to the starving population, or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine?

Drawing on previously unseen sources, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege tells the remarkable and moving story of the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during the darkest days of the siege, risking their lives in the name of science.

Shortlisted for the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, this acclaimed work earned recognition as an Economist Book of the Year and won the CBHL Literature Award for Excellence in History.

Simon Parkin is an award-winning British author and journalist. He is contributing writer for The New Yorker, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Orwell Prize finalist, and winner of The Wingate Literary Prize.